Monday, March 31, 2014

What's In A Million or 6.2 Million?

As we have reached the date when enrollment for the ACA was supposed to have ended, March 31, 2014, this post is even more relevant to be re-posted with an update. The original post from March 14, 2014 was entitled "What's In A Million?" The re-post I have entitled, "What's In A Million or 6.2 Million?"
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When Obamacare rolled out, the Obama lie of the year was revealed when cancellations of millions of health insurance policies happened. Initially, it was a million cancellations, then 5 million, and now it is over 6 million Americans who have lost their policy due to Obamacare.

When those Americans lost their policies, what was the mantra spewed by Democrats? It wasn't just that those policies were inferior, it was that number was a tiny amount of people when you consider all of America. In fact, president Obama just didn't think 5 or 6 million people losing their plans was a small amount, he arrogantly dismissed the fact that 8-9 million people might lose their policies [or have them changed from what they had and liked] when then minority whip, Eric Cantor pointed that out to him at the so-called health care summit in 2010. President Obama responded cavalierly with a smirk on his face, "Keep in mind, that's 8-9 million people out of more than 300 million Americans."

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When the presidential spokesman Jay Carney was questioned by Nicole Wallace [from the George W Bush administration] about the president lying to the people that "if you like your health insurance plan you can keep it", Mr. Carney said it is just a sliver or cut of the [small] 5% of the people on the individual market who are affected. [note: Carney starts his statement about the 2:20 mark]

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So, when caught in his own lie, this president and his presidential spokesman call millions of Americans losing their health insurance plans a small "sliver" and we must "keep in mind that is out of 300 million Americans."

So, to sum up: This administration dismisses the 5 [or 6] million people [who have lost insurance] as a small number of Americans.

Now we turn to the present. It is only a few weeks away when we were initially told that it would take at least 7 million Americans to purchase plans from the ACA exchanges to make this law viable. Of course, that number changed to 5 or 6 million when it was almost certain that the 7 million number would not be reached.

Now it looks like it has changed again to almost any number of people that get their health insurance through the exchanges will be deemed a success by this administration. Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sebelius, testifying before the House, Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, said seven million was not the goal and now "she would define success as “millions of people having affordable health care” through private insurance and Medicaid". [not only has she redefined what success would be she adds Medicaid to the number--What?, you mean before Obamacare there was no such a thing as Medicaid?]

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So, let's get this straight. Five million people losing their health care is just a small amount, just a sliver in the face of 300 million Americans, but five million getting health care through the ACA exchanges is "millions of people" and that is a great success.

Here is another way of saying how the administration looks at the American people: anyone who lost their health insurance is not worth talking about because they are just a tiny amount; but when those exact same people then must go to the exchange to buy Obamacare, they all of a sudden become those Americans the president is "fighting for."
______________________________________________________________Update [March 31, 2014]: As of February [the last date that numbers have come out], the number of Americans who have lost their insurance due to Obamacare is 6.2 million. And as we reach the deadline day [who knows what that means anymore since Obama has claimed his royalty to change it] the last numbers just given out by the administration on the number of people who they are claiming have "enrolled" in Obamacare on the exchanges is just over 6 million...let's give them the benefit of the doubt and round that off to6.2 million. The fact is, the 6.2 million number given out by the White House is totally bogus because not all of those people have even made their first payment, to actually obtain the insurance, and many, if not most of that number includes people who already had insurance but were forced to buy health insurance on the exchanges when they lost their old insurance plans.

But even if we allow that the 6.2 million number the administration is claiming to have enrolled in Obmacare is legitimate [which we know it is not], the big question still remains:

What's in a million, or better yet, what's in 6.2 million? To president Obama and the Democrats, that depends on which 6.2 million you are talking about.

The White House is telling us that millions of people are getting Healthcare for the 1st time. Yet when asked how many are signing up that did not have insurance, they don't know. People like me suspect the Lyin King DOES know (since this is a key metric of the program), but the numbers aren't good.

As Maxwell Smart might say, would you believe 100's of thousands of people are getting insurance for the 1st time?

Also the number of unpaid "policies" seem to exceed the estimated of newly insured. Silly me would expect the unpaid policies to be mostly those who didn't pay in the past.